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Service Design Portfolio
Organizational Development and Culture, Design for America
As the first Director of People and Culture at DFA, I led a small team in defining and operationalizing the organization’s core values as a mission-driven entity. This work sample provides an overview of the project, along with examples of how our plan was implemented in practice.
This initiative was developed in close collaboration with Kate Rose and an advisory cohort, including Sharon Klotz, Rachael Dietkus, Andy Eichfeld, Andy Ng, Kristin Wisnewski, Lulu Michelson, Maggie Wong, and Terence Burke.
Problem Statement
Organizations have a responsibility to cultivate a healthy, creative, and safe environment for their employees. While DFA is rooted in strong organizational values, they have historically been implicit rather than explicitly defined.
This ambiguity leads to:
- A lack of alignment and consistency in fostering a healthy work environment
- Difficulty identifying when values are not being upheld
- Team members interpreting DFA’s values differently, resulting in unintentional misalignment across programming, meetings, and communications
Examples of Misalignment
- Human Resources: As a value-driven system, HR is meant to mitigate conflict and improve the employee experience. Without clearly defined values and policies guiding workplace conditions, employees may face inconsistent or inequitable treatment.
- Student Engagement: DFA’s values shape our interactions with students. However, varied interpretations of priorities—such as project completion versus student learning—can lead to program designs that inadvertently misalign with our core principles.
How can we collaboratively define, implement, and sustain a set of organizational values that guide our team, organization, and global network?
How can we create space for these values to evolve as our organization grows?
Project Goals
Clearly define and articulate DFA’s core values
Audit DFA’s policies, practices, tools, and systems to assess alignment and identify areas for improvement
Develop ongoing processes, practices, and tools to foster collective accountability in upholding DFA’s values across the network
Standardize onboarding procedures to ensure new hires understand and integrate into our value system
Embed value-driven policies and tools into all DFA programs and projects, including both internal (employee-facing) and external (student- and partner-facing) initiatives
Train DFA staff in trauma-responsive practices and design materials that follow trauma-informed best practices, reducing the risk of harm in workplace and partner interactions
Process
Recognizing that culture is co-created and continuously evolving, we are committed to ongoing reflection and adaptation in how we practice and embody our values.
We do this by:
Defining project scope, timeline, and measurable outcomes that align with DFA’s larger goals (e.g., studio sustainability)
Researching best practices in culture-building and review existing scholarship
Experimenting with radical culture-building strategies using a reflective, iterative approach
Developing + implementing evaluation and accountability tools
Documenting progress and lessons learned throughout the process
Expanding Impact
In aligning our strategies, systems, and practices with our values, we hypothesize this project will increase our organization’s ability to be innovative in our thinking, equitable in our practices, adaptive in our structures, supportive in our policies, and recursive in our growth.
Culture building will impact DFA stakeholders in the following ways:
A healthier, more creative, and safer work environment that meets the unique needs of all team members.
Clearly defined values provide a framework for resolving conflicts and ensuring collective accountability.
New employees experience a seamless transition into DFA’s culture and value system.
Stronger relationships built on trust, mutual respect, and open communication between students and DFA National staff.
Trauma-informed curriculum and training minimize harm and foster equitable design practices.
Increased value alignment across student projects, studio culture, and studio policies.
DFA’s clearly articulated mission and values strengthen and sustain partner relationships.
Trauma-informed practices help DFA students build more trusting, power-conscious, and reciprocal relationships with community partners.